Tag Archives: food

After work family eating

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Chicken home grown

I was talking with a couple of my work colleagues this week about family eating. Putting aside that a number of us do research on food related topics, even those who do not do this kind of work are pretty food aware. There is a member of staff who works on ice fields, but also raises sheep for wool and food (see the post about his lamb here), another member of staff is involved in bee keeping with his local church (he also sells the honey in the department), many of us have small vegetable plots.  I have raised chickens.  An even larger number cook. This provides great opportunities for recipe sharing. Continue reading →

Paris, Eating, Books and Promise

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IMG_1956I took my son to paris this week. It was a reward for more than surviving what was a difficult few months.  Eurostar was having a sale; I felt we deserved a treat.  In anticipation of this journey, I did what I usually do.  I looked for guidebooks.  I found a couple of good ones, and one in particular, The little Black Book of Paris (2014, Peter Pauper Press), proved particularly useful.  I have also begun to buy a novel about the places I am visiting before going and this time I purchased a book called Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard.  I was going to Paris, I planned to eat lunch, it seemed a good choice.   Continue reading →

When life gives you half price figs, make jam (and a tart)

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FigsFigs were half price at our local Waitrose this autumn.  I bought enough to make a batch of Marmellata di Fichi (Fig Jam).  This is made pretty much like any other jam thought the ratio of sugar to fig is a bit less (I used 1.5 Kg of figs and 600g of caster sugar).  I also added the zest of one lemon, the juice of half of the lemon and about 3 teaspoons of Chinese 5 spice (I know not the traditional Italian recipe).  I think Chinese 5 spice should be used more widely.  The mix I have consists of ginger, star anise, fennel, cinnamon, and cloves.  It is wonderful in most things where you want a bit of Christmas-y/ Autumn-y hint.

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Finding the beginning or where does our food come from?

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03 19 08 Bradford wholesale market 012

I once conducted a research project that examined the consumption practices of middle-class households in the UK.  I was interested in the knowledges they had about what foods to buy and how their own understandings of local fit into this.  As part of that project I went to visit the wholesale market in Bradford, which is where most of the fruit and vegetables one finds in the various corner shops within the region are sourced.  It was both an interesting and illuminating trip at the time, and has informed my reflections on where our food begins its life as food any number of times since then.  What, in particular, it has caused me to consider is not only the socio-cultural relations that inform the origins of our food, but also the contexual usefulness (or uselessness) of the idea of local when we think about whether or not our food is local.  Continue reading →